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Most of my past weekend was spent framing and packing a print to ship to an upcoming exhibition. No matter how well I pack it, shipping framed work always feels like a gamble (still crossing my fingers that this print makes it unscathed). I've had framed works damaged during transport in the past, and labeling boxes with desperate pleas for special attention doesn't help at all. I highly doubt I'm the only one that has seen a few delivery drivers chucking packages clearly marked FRAGILE from the back of an open truck.

As I was bundling up this particular work like that poor kid in the movie A Christmas Story, I discovered an easy new method for creating protective cardboard corners. I am so excited about these cardboard corners that I made the template below, which you can download as a printable PDF here.

Print and trace the template as is for frames or packages approximately 1.25" deep. Or, scale it to fit a specific size by matching the height of the dashed rectangles to the depth of what you want to wrap. In addition to framed work, these corners are a great extra layer of protection for flat work that has been packaged in a portfolio of cardboard and foam core. The width of the small cut notch should be such that it accommodates the thickness of the cardboard you are using to construct the corner.

In our move to Iowa, we did a poor job of packing and the majority of our belongings were damaged in transit (it looked like they dropped the shipping container and rolled it a few times). For the move to North Carolina, my packing was much more obsessive and it included cardboard corners on almost anything and everything. It worked, but the technique I was using created corners that were ugly, bulky, and wasteful of resources. I think that is why I am (unnaturally) excited about this simple, elegant solution.

If I am late to the party and you already know an amazing method for constructing cardboard corners, consider sharing your technique in the comments section.